Gap Creek

A Novel

This New York Times bestseller and Oprah's Book Club( selection takes readers back in time to 19th century Appalachia where 17-year-old Julie Harmon and her husband, Hank, scratch out a living, sustaining themselves on hard work and relying on love to keep chaos and madness at bay.

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I really enjoyed reading this book. Had this book not been recommended for our book club I would have never had the chance to visit Gap Creek. I can't wait to read the sequel....The Road from Gap Creek!

Don't get me wrong: I love books about kings and queens, international intrigue, age-old conspiracies, and universe-altering choices. But once in a while, I find myself needing to step back from the drama and pick up a story about ordinary people. Hank and Julie are two such people --- young newlyweds in the Appalachians near the turn of the century, struggling to get by in an unforgiving world of disease, death, hunger, flood, fire, greed, poverty, and prejudice. Julie's voice is vivid and relatable, and the story kept me glued to my seat. As other reviewers have noted, it's not a book to read if you're already feeling melancholy. But if you're in a mellow mood and want a story that will sink into your soul to stay, "Gap Creek" is the book to choose.

This story is the most tragic I have read in a long time. If it is not one thing it is another. The couple are beset with more disaster than I would wish on an enemy and yet they survive. It is truly the story of a marriange.

Set in Appalachia, the story follows the couple's life for one year as they move down from their mountain to Gap Creek where they hope to make their life together. After all that befalls them, some of it of their own making, they seem to be stronger in their commitment to each other.

I can see why Oprah picked this for her club. The writing is from the wife's perspective and is in the voice of a trusting, capable, accepting woman with little education but a lot of heart.